Adding a conservatory to your home is a big investment. It costs a lot of money - tens of thousands of pounds - plus the building work will likely mean weeks of noise and disruption for your household.

Of course, you may feel that the results justify these sacrifices, but before you start planning your new conservatory, you may want to consider a streamlined glass sunroom as a possible alternative.

Here are three important questions that you should ask yourself before you add a conservatory to your property.

What's your budget?

According to HomeHow, a conservatory can cost anywhere from £5K to £75K depending on the size of the conservatory and what materials you use.

Our sunrooms are firmly on the lower end of that price scale. For example, a 3m x 2m Panorama glass room can cost as little as £14,600 and even a luxurious 5m x 4m Vogue garden room will only set you back about £30,000 - significantly less than a traditional conservatory of the same size.

It's also worth bearing in mind that building a conservatory often comes with a lot of extra costs that some people forget to take into account. For example, the ground must be prepared before construction can begin, and this groundwork can add quite a bit to the project's total cost.

SunSpaces are usually installed onto concrete post bases, with no foundation necessary in the vast majority of cases. This cuts down on construction costs, which is another reason why our garden rooms tend to be more cost-effective than conservatories.

Will you need planning permission?

Before you build any kind of home extension, it's very important to check whether or not planning permission is needed.

If you fail to obtain planning permission for a conservatory or extension that oversteps the permitted development rights, then you may be ordered to demolish the unauthorised extension at your own expense.

However, as a general rule, planning permission is NOT needed as long as:

• No more than half of the land around the original house is covered by extensions
• No part of the extension is located closer to the road than the original house
• The height of the extension is 4 metres or less
• The width of the extension is no greater than the width of the original house

For more information, see Planning Advice & Applications. In our experience, planning permission is not required for around 90% of garden room installations.

How long will construction take?

Traditional conservatories take a while to build. Obviously, the exact timeframe will depend on the scale and complexity of your project, but you're probably looking at 3 to 4 weeks of construction for an average conservatory.

Our sunrooms, on the other hand, can be installed in under a week. Their streamlined design makes the job far more straightforward than the average conservatory build - the video below shows our team completing a Panorama garden room in just two days!

If you want an easy way to extend your living space, SunSpaces are the perfect solution. Click here to request a quote for your sunroom!

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